After five seasons torturing Nancy Botwin on Weeds, Guillermo Díaz has found a role with a more literal spin on the act. As CIA spy turned subway bum turned fixer/hacker Huck on Scandal, Díaz plays a tough guy with severe emotional damage and a talent for power drill-enhanced information gathering. Season three of the show premieres tonight on ABC and picks up with Kerry Washington's Olivia Pope dealing with the fallout from an attempted murder and the newly public facts of her affair with the U.S. president. We talked to Díaz about plot mysteries, being a nerd, and his music-video stardom.

ESQUIRE.COM: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me.

GUILLERMO DÍAZ: Absolutely, my pleasure. I love Esquire.

ESQ: Are you a reader?

GD: Yeah, I remember when I was doing Weeds and Mary-Louise [Parker] did a story for you guys. Do you remember that?

ESQ: They usually dumped bad guys pretty quickly on that show. I guess once they saw the Brick Dance they realized they had to keep you.

GD: That sealed the deal for me.

ESQ: That's probably also what got you the Britney Spears "I Wanna Go" video. They were like, "He can just sit there while someone dances."

GD: Actually, the director Chris Marrs Piliero was a huge fan of Half Baked and Weeds so that actually kind of is how I got the video.

ESQ: Were you a fan of Britney's before the shoot?

GD: I wasn't a big fan until I did the video and I heard the album that "I Wanna Go" was on, Femme Fatale. I was fighting against it, but now I'm totally part of the Britney Army. Madonna's always going to be number one, but I'm definitely a Britney fan.

ESQ: I feel like someone should use existing footage of Scandal and make Olivia Pope the star of the "Work Bitch" video.

GD: Oh my God, that is so good. You need to write that treatment and send it to Britney's people. Just sign the note with, "You're welcome, Britney. Anna"

ESQ: Would you ever do another music video?

GD: Absolutely. I'm still in shock that I'm in a Britney Spears video and that I pour milk all over myself while she dances next to me. She says my name in the video! But it would have to be someone that I really respect. I would totally do a Madonna or Lady Gaga video.

ESQ: Maybe you'll become like the go-to guy for dumping milk on yourself in music videos for female pop stars. You could branch out to half and half.

GD: Then one will be almond milk.

ESQ: Your Twitter bio says that you're a nerd. What are you nerdy about?

GD: Oh, man. I'm just a big old nerd. I'm not that cool guy at all. Yesterday I was getting a sandwich, and the guy helping me was a fan. He went in to fist-bump and I lifted my hand up 'cause I thought he was going to pound me like from the top. And we just did like 30 seconds of awkward trying to figure out how to shake each other's hands. So it's that type of thing. I don't really know what the hip handshakes are. And I'm a huge horror film and sci-fi fan. Stephen King and The Exorcist and the Evil Dead movies and Rosemary's Baby. Me and my friends actually do a Halloween art show every year, with all these bloody heads.

ESQ: Do you think being a super-earnest nerd makes it easier for your cast mate Joshua Malina to play pranks on you?

GD: The thing is, he does it to all of us. We've all been the subject of his ridicule. He called and acted like he was a New York City police detective and he needed to question me.

ESQ: About what?

GD: He wouldn't say in the message. That was what was so scary. I freaked out for a whole day thinking, I haven't done anything, butoh my God, did I do something? And he'll do childish stuff like putting toothpaste on your door handle. He's like that annoying buzzing bee in your ear that just doesn't go away.

ESQ:[Mild spoiler ahead] There's a plot point that I'm confused about: Did Olivia's dad try to have her killed?

GD: You know what's funny about our show? So much stuff is going on that oftentimes, Anna, I'm quite confused myself. It comes off as like her dad is the one who wants her dead. But I feel like once we get closer to the end of the season we're going to find out that that possibly isn't the case. Like maybe there's more to it than just simply he wanted to have her killed. I can't imagine it just being that.

ESQ: Quinn has gone from kind of a goody two-shoes into a mini-Huck, now that she's hacking into computers and torturing people.

GD: With Quinn, Huck has kind of opened this door to this dark side. I don't think he was prepared for her to take a liking to him like she has. I think he feels a little bit not just scared for her, that she's not going to be able to turn away from it because it's so seducing and addictive. And he's also scared that she possibly can be better at it than he is.

GD: I think there is a little tinge of jealousy there. I mean, she did take the drill away from him when he choked on the job and was able to get the Cytron card from Billy Chambers.

ESQ: Do you think at some point Huck will have to choose between his wife and Quinn?

GD: I kind of like that people keep asking if Huck and Quinn are going to have an intimate relationship. And as far as Huck's wife coming back — I can't imagine her not coming back. I have to start opening up my old emotional wounds so I can be prepared to play those scenes. I'm sure I'm going to have to be bawling. I'm already dreading it.

ESQ: Do you want Olivia to get back together with the president or do you want her to get together with Jake?

GD: Right now I'm feeling Jake.

ESQ: Me, too!

GD: Right? There are so many people that hate Jake and are just completely against it, but I really like him. I think they have really good chemistry. I think she has something with Jake that she doesn't and can't have with the president.

ESQ: The president is so mean to her.

GD: He's hot and cold. I don't like that. Plus I feel like Jake and Olivia have dirtier sex than Olivia and the president. I don't know why.